My blog is about anything that affects my life. I started with food, but I end up sharing characters from my past and my opinions about various topics.

MCKNOTES ON A CHANGE OF ROUTINE

About this blog

By Rich McKinney

Rich started writing for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin as music critic for the symphony and opera seasons. Originally from Granite City, IL, he graduated from Simpson College with a degree in music education. In 1984 he received his MA in Music
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Rich started writing for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin as music critic for the symphony and opera seasons. Originally from Granite City, IL, he graduated from Simpson College with a degree in music education. In 1984 he received his MA in Music Education from Truman State. Now retired, Rich enjoyed reading, writing music and short essays. He is the director of Kirksville Community Chorus.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to step back and rethink one’s patterns. I’m at that point now. I started writing my blog near the end of March last year. My original idea was to review local restaurants. I suggested that perhaps I would write one review a month with the goal of a year in mind. I figured I’d have no trouble writing 12 blog segments.

I actually got this idea because, as I age, I want to do whatever I can to keep my mind agile and stimulated. After I suggested writing one review a month, I was asked to write twice a week about anything that affected my life. At this point I have written over 135 segments of my blog.

I truly enjoy the experience. I abandoned the idea of reviewing restaurants. I could not bring myself to say anything bad about a business that served the community and provided jobs for people, so I figured it wouldn’t be much of a series of reviews if I only said nice things. That’s not really what a restaurant review should do.

I have written recipes, character sketches, travelogues, social commentary and paid homage to local individuals to mark their passing. I have also written about a number of other issues.

I have received a number of comments from people in the community. I’m grateful for that because I really got no other feedback. The “Daily Express” has been good to me, and eventually fell into a pattern of printing one of my essays every week. I have also been picked up by seven other Missouri newspapers for their online editions.

While this has been a really positive experience fore m, I feel the need for a change. I will be cutting back. I no longer feel compelled to write twice a week, and may not even write every week, but I will continue to write from time to time as long as I am welcome to do so.

Thanks to those of you who have been so supportive and gave me feedback that helped me learn in so many ways. I hope I can still provide you with some of my musings. I just feel that for now I need a bit of a break.